The plain hard fact of the matter is: If you drive it on the street, if it has plates on it, and you can get away with it, then dammit it’s a street car. And, if we meet up and we race, and you kick my ass because you can get away with more than I can, then I’ll be jealous. But, that doesn’t make your ride any less legit .

In the fall of 1985, a new type of car magazine first appeared on the bookshelves of America. It was bold, brash, irreverent, and very, very different. Cars Illustrated, first published as the Schneider Performance Series from CSK Publishing, came into a market at a time when most car magazines were concerned with custom paint, chrome supercharger intakes, and car show detailing tips.